This invention relates to a waste treatment material dispensing device; and, more particularly, it relates to a waste treatment material dispensing device for use in connection with the disposal of body waste fluids. Recently, there has been a growing trend in the use of safe waste disposal devices for disposing aqueous body waste fluids such as blood and other fluids drained from patient's body cavities.
Body waste fluids that are drained or drawn from a hospital patient are collected in an operating room or bedside fluid vessel, generally with either a rigid-walled canister or a soft walled plastic fluid vessel that is set into a receptacle mounted to a vacuum machine. Both types of vessels are provided with a lid which has an inlet patient port in turn connected to the patient by a patient line, and further has a vacuum port connected to a vacuum machine by a vacuum line. The lid may also have a drain port from which the body waste fluids are disposed of at a designated disposal area in the hospital before disposal of the vessel itself.
These body waste fluids frequently include harmful components including viruses and other pathogens. During the sealing and discarding process there is a risk that the collected fluids may escape from the vessel and come into contact with personnel. In particular, health care workers are exposed to an increased risk of contracting disease from contact with these pathogens. A common risk factor includes contact with blood and other body fluids escaping from drainage devices. Fluids escape from these drainage devices through splashing or aerosolization during disposal. By way of example, drainage devices frequently have removable covers. As the covers are snapped on and off, body fluids splash, aerosolize, and contaminate the underside of a cover and the surrounding area, thus creating a hazard to health care workers and other patients.
Various measures for reducing the risks of splashing, aerosolization, and contamination have been proposed. By way of example, waste treatment material is released into a drainage device from a reservoir. Gravity then pulls the waste treatment material from the reservoir into body fluids contained within the device, e.g. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 215,370 filed by Kaufman.
There are a number of problems associated with the release of waste treatment material from reservoirs used in drainage devices. A primary problem is associated with a build up of gas pressure within the closed drainage device as body fluids accumulate. The build up of pressure makes it difficult to release the waste treatment material from a reservoir into contact with body fluids in order to immobilize or disinfect the fluids. There exists a need for a device that provides for the dispersion of waste treatment material into a drainage device notwithstanding a build up of pressure within the device.
A second problem involves the lack of interchangability of reservoirs. More particularly, reservoirs may be specific to particular types of drainage devices. There is no way to interchange a reservoir containing one type of waste treatment material with another reservoir containing an alternate waste treatment material from one drainage system to another. Hence, there exists a need for a reservoir that can be utilized in a variety of drainage systems.
Yet a further problem with drainage devices involves the problem of caking. As body waste fluids accumulate in a drainage device splashing occurs. Waste treatment material cakes around a reservoir, thus decreasing the dispersion of the waste treatment material. There exists a need for a waste treatment material dispensing device that provides increased dispersion and decreases caking of waste treatment material.
It is an object of the present invention to solve these and other problems encountered in health care facilities. The present invention targets the thousands of health care facilities who provide drainage systems for use by their patients in the United States and worldwide, and serves these markets by providing a waste treatment material dispensing device that allows for increased dispersion of waste treatment material, that allows for increased safety by providing for decreased spillage and aerosolization of pathogen containing body fluids, that allows for interchangability between different types of drainage systems, and that has a lower manufacturing cost.